Three teams led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have won major blocks of time on two of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. Two of the projects seek to advance the development of nuclear fusion as a clean and abundant source of energy by improving understanding of the superhot, electrically charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions.

The physics of condensed matter provides a unique perspective on materials and systems of environmental relevance. I discuss three ways in which concepts and methods of condensed matter physics bear upon the quest for a sustainable future. Electronic devices made from metal oxides may enable new approaches to renewable energy, such as diodes that operate at optical frequencies to directly convert the electromagnetic field of sunlight to current.

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on the Solar Dynamic Observatory with obtains full disk images that span the temperature range from 6000 to 20,000,000K with arcsecond resolution and a 12 second cadence. Because of the enhanced thermal and temporal coverage and the high dynamic range available with AIA, it has been able to discovery collective behavior associated with energeti solar events that are driven by the expansion of magnetic structures.

Thirty-five years after their launches in 1977, the twin Voyager spacecraft have completed the Grand Tour of the outer planets and are now exploring the outer regions of the heliosphere. Soon they will be the first man-made objects to enter and explore interstellar space. Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock of the solar wind on December 16 2004 and Voyager 2 crossed the same structure on August 30 2007. The next destination is the heliopause, the boundary between plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun and plasma and magnetic fields from our galaxy.

Hantao Ji is a professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University and a Distinguished Research Fellow at PPPL. For more than 20 years he has been interested in the growing fields of plasma physics and astrophysics, and has dedicated his career to bringing them closer together.

Looking backwards, using fossil evidence from nearby galaxies provides a plausible picture of how galaxies have formed over cosmic time. Also, going forwards, the present quite definite cosmological model, shows how perturbations grew from low amplitude fluctuations via standard physical processes to the present world. Finally, we can employ large telescopes as a time-machines – directly observing the past history of our light-cone. While none of these approaches gives results accurate to more than 5-10%, a plausible picture emerges. Massive galaxies form in two phases.

Princeton University and the Max Planck Society of Germany have joined forces in a scientific collaboration that is designed to accelerate progress in cutting-edge research ranging from harnessing fusion to understanding solar storms.

Title: Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Administrative focus:Prager, a well-known plasma physicist and fusion scientist with a distinguished career and a record of discovery at the University of Wisconsin, arrived in January 2009 as director of PPPL, the United States’ leading magnetic fusion facility.